The Wall Street Journal has been following the lives of several senior professionals in finance who lost their jobs during the recent downturn.
One of them, Heidi Mannetter, formerly a senior marketing strategist at Principal Financial Group Inc., offers some useful advice for anyone hunting for a job right now, including jobs in private equity. Ms. Mannetter, 33, has an M.B.A. from the University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Management and lives in Des Moines, Iowa. A few of the lessons she’s learned after months of job searching include:
– Network in an organized fashion. Mannetter has started working her network of personal and professional connections in a more systematic way, scheduling regular follow-up meetings with key people.
– Shift to smaller organizations. She has shifted her search tactics from primarily focusing on Fortune 500 companies to smaller firms with headquarters near where she lives. One reason: the ability to meet face-to-face with local executives. She can make a better impression in person than by simply submitting her resume and cover letter to companies far away.
– Be selective. Focus on job opportunities for which you have a genuine enthusiasm. That enthusiasm will come across in your cover letter and interview, and be sorely lacking when applying for jobs that don’t excite you.
– Develop confidence with practice. The silver lining of being unemployed is that the longer you go through the process, the more polished you should become, both in person and on paper.
– Have patience. Mannetter points out that you never know what’s going on in the life of the person doing the hiring. They could well have issues that are far more pressing than hiring for this position. Understand their priorities, and try to strike the right balance between patience and persistence.
Comments on this entry are closed.